Why do people disagree?

Why do we disagree on things?-Is it because right and wrong is defined by each person through his window into the landscape and his desire to survive?-also, different genetics. Some people have more empathy, others have more logic. -Also there is ego attachment every time you believe in a new idea, or come up with one. This is because most of your actions and thoughts are supposed to leverage your status (especially if youre a man) to help you get mates. No one likes to feel cut down and have to start over with knowledge. -some people see no point in knowledge that won't help us survive, others live just to dive into useless knowledge. -Some people want to make the best of being a bag of meat by cooprating with its incentive structures, others want to ignore biology completely and focus on the abstract

People disagree because they imagine their disagreement changes what is true. It doesn't. Neither does their agreement. Agree/disagree is pure ego at work, and in its most visible form. "I am so important that I will tell you that you are wrong and that I am right".

Moving beyond agree/disagree is beyond most people, but incredibly important to attaining real freedom. Things are what they are, and it really doesn't matter what you think about them. It changes nothing about the things, themselves, but it changes your own ability to deal effectively with them.

People disagree because they imagine their disagreement changes what is true. It doesn't. Neither does their agreement. Agree/disagree is pure ego at work, and in its most visible form. "I am so important that I will tell you that you are wrong and that I am right".

Moving beyond agree/disagree is beyond most people, but incredibly important to attaining real freedom. Things are what they are, and it really doesn't matter what you think about them. It changes nothing about the things, themselves, but it changes your own ability to deal effectively with them.

It's interesting how modern people just have a set of topics they always come back to in conversations like abortion or gay marriage. They say "I agree/disagree" so confidently, as if their opinion matters in the grand scheme. They truly believe in democracy.

They truly do. Democracy is nothing if not people voicing opinions. As if opinions were food and shelter. There's a terrible famine coming.

Letting go of liberalism and democracy is in some ways letting go of your artificial confidence. People can't do that if artificial confidence, "swagger" is all they've got. They'd plummet to below zero.

Phoenix

Everyone disagrees and everyone agrees, it's a single spectrum. A (very marginally) better question would be why some people disagree more or less strongly, and then the reasons would need to be qualified towards that distinction.

Now if I didn't humor anyone else with this disagreement, at least I humored myself. It also helps in sharpening the 'ol sword. Not to mention that you get a glimpse into the working of another mind.

Of course there's a pretty obvious possibility nobody's mentioned yet, that people disagree partly out of humble compassion.

I think a lot of people agree and disagree on 'issues' because if they didn't, they wouldn't know what to make of their time. They would have to actually do something, instead of engaging in debate.

The issue of 'free' debate (freedom of expression) is huge where I come from - home of the famed Mohammad-cartoons. I think a lot of people like to participate in this ongoing debate, because it makes them feel as if 'freedom of expression' actually means something in itself. As if voicing your opinion is the same as being free.

Let me give you a summary of the debate: All agree that freedom of expression is important. But some think we have it, while others think we don't. And so the discussion goes on and on. Both sides think that talking about it will bring us closer to a solution - but the only thing they actually talk about, is whether there is a problem or not.

If you can't agree on the problem, the solution never becomes an issue. The 'debate' can go on forever.

I think the core of the issue is this: We feel less free - so we have to talk about it all the more. And we have to talk about it, because we can conceive of no other way of making ourself free.